


she's always gone too long

by ElasticElla



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Canon, F/M, Post-Episode: s02e13 Those of Demon Blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-26
Updated: 2017-07-26
Packaged: 2018-12-07 10:19:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11621532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElasticElla/pseuds/ElasticElla
Summary: Isabelle visits Meliorn after he helps them save Max.





	she's always gone too long

**Author's Note:**

> title from withers' ain't no sunshine

Isabelle visits Meliorn on a sunny June afternoon, a pair of dragonflies following her to his tent. She carries a tray full of bribes, a collection of sweet fruits he favors and three roses- one dipped in copper, another silver, and the last gold. Heavy handed literally and figuratively, she knows, but Isabelle has a lot of ground to cover with him. She wouldn’t blame him if he were to deny her entry.

The tent flap folds back as she reaches the threshold, Meliorn already sitting at his low table. She joins him, doesn’t need to ask with her favorite red silk cushion in her usual spot. (Moreover, the plants did not throw her out- a good first step.) 

Meliorn surveys the tray, plucks a date from the bowl. “You have not eaten with me in many days.” 

“I wish to remedy that,” she says, doesn’t touch the food just yet. 

Meliorn cocks his head to the side, waits a beat before saying, “And what price comes with your flashy gifts shadowhunter?” 

Izzy dry swallows, deserved that. “Without you we couldn’t have tracked her in time. Max would be- I’m thankful.” 

He blinks, nibbles on the fruit. Izzy relaxes at that, picks up a strawberry for herself. “That’s not all,” he says. “What else?” 

“I’m sorry,” she says, doesn’t let the hurt show at his surprise. “I should have told you why I ended things.” 

Meliorn’s lips quirk, and he goes for a clementine. “It wasn’t hard to realize. Will you make me say it?”

Izzy exhales, “My brother- the institute- wants me to keep a closer eye on the Seelies. After- they’re worried.” 

“How close?” he asks, eyes nearly glowing. “Would you care to move in?” 

“Meliorn, I-”

“Or perhaps live in the faerie realm?” He pauses delicately, lets the offer hang precariously in the balance. “How long would you last before forgetting to report to your dear brother? Before forgetting his name?” 

Isabelle doesn’t want to understand or keep playing verbal chess, his reply too bitingly personal. “If you’d rather, it can be someone else.”

“No need,” Meliorn gives up. His hand reaches out to the flowers, light chimes as he turns them. “Gratitude, apology, rekindling. Will you tell me which metal each is?” 

“You know,” Isabelle says, marginally more relaxed, “you have it right. You don’t usually second guess your instincts.” 

Meliorn smiles, teeth flashing, “Not long ago you would have put your family’s reputation first.” 

Isabelle exhales, a bitter laugh tucked behind her teeth. “That was before I realized how little it’s worth. It doesn’t keep them safe. Definitely not happy.”

“What would make you happy Isabelle?” he asks, and there’s a touch of deja vu to it, a loose thread of her memory.

She pushes away the feeling, needs to concentrate on the present. “I don’t want us to go to war.” 

“You are a child of war. Have you not spent your life preparing for it?” He asks, offering her a blueberry.

She takes it, doesn’t chew before swallowing. “You can’t truly mean that. Tell me Meliorn, what would make you happy?” 

He smiles, twirls the bronze rose, “You already have. I know what you’re doing Isabelle, I taught you that trick.” 

“Will it not work?” she asks, a coy smile on her lips. 

“No,” Meliorn says softly, a smothering silence covering the tent. Her own breathing feels too loud as she waits for him to continue. “It is far easier to go to war for a love than to prevent one. To steal away than to return without notice. I am but a pretty instrument of death.” 

Isabelle nearly upends the table, rushing to his side, her hands cupping his face. “Tell me you do not truly believe that. You saved my brother’s life, you-”

“I have demon blood,” he interrupts simply. “It’s not an empty sentence, you’ve cut up enough cadavers to know.” 

Her hands fall with her shoulders, their breath mingling, “It shouldn’t be.” 

Meliorn brushes her hair behind her ear, kisses the corner of her mouth before whispering, “You’re missing something.” 

Izzy swallows, forces herself to think as Meliorn stays too close. All she needs to do is lean and they would fall together again, they would- 

“Motivation. Your queen wants to fight. Fix the Clave?” 

Meliorn kisses up her jawline, soft presses of warmth. Remembrance and desire spin hot in her core, her fingers clutching his arms closer. His lips reach her ear as he says, “Destroy.” 

Her stomach flips, bile rising in her throat as she shoves back- can’t risk being distracted in this. “You want me to report back and force the Clave to attack first.” 

“You will do your duty.” 

“No, there- there has to be another way. Alec said he was going to give the counsel real power-”

Meliorn laughs lightly, “He promises as all institute leaders do. I expect nothing of it.” 

“You haven’t even tried-” Isabelle starts, can already feel another broken sentence before he interrupts.

His eyes flash up, “After what the Clave allowed to happen with the sword, they deserve no leniency.” 

Izzy bites her lip, can’t argue with that. “I’m sorry, I am. But I won’t be the one to start a war, I won’t tell him.” 

Meliorn’s smile goes rueful, and Isabelle begins to feel almost hazy, reaches for her stele. He knew she’d react like this, her head’s spinning too fast for coherency. “I’m sorry too Isabelle. But this war is happening even if you won’t report conspiracy. I told you once,” he says, and she can just barely hear him now, on the edge of unconsciousness. “that I would keep you safe, that I would steal you away.”

Memory and reality tingle, a faint image of them in bed many moons ago. Isabelle had asked him how to make him happy and Meliorn had grinned wild, said one day he would take her to his true home. That one day, she would remember and it would already be too late.

**Author's Note:**

> ....so it's been a while, hopefully that worked and the touch of horror didn't feel too ooc. if you wanna chat or request a fic, the [tumblr's](http://bizeke.tumblr.com/) active again ^.^


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